MONTGOMERY, ALA. – Critics said I was too kind to the original Kia Sportage sport-utility vehicle, introduced in 1995.They had a point. It was a tiny thing built body-on-frame in the manner of a traditional truck. That construction, combined with the first Sportage’s short wheelbase, made for a less-than-comfortable ride.

The Sportage was boxy. Interior and exterior styling was dated. And the vinyl fittings in its passenger cabin were neither supple nor subtle. They were unmistakably, undeniably, inarguably plastic.

I liked the Sportage anyway. It was inexpensive, about $14,000 for a reasonably well-equipped vehicle. It got decent mileage, 21 miles a gallon on straight highway runs, which was pretty good at a time when, even with low gasoline prices, “SUV” meant “sucking up value.”

Also, despite its many imperfections, the original Sportage was a tough little pug. You could knock it around, spatter it with mud, scratch and dent it. It was made for abuse. The worse you treated it, the better it ran.

But being a Barbarian in the midst of royalty was no easy task. Rivals in the compact SUV class, primarily the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, simply had more class. Kia Motors Corporation, under the Hyundai Corporation umbrella, removed the Sportage from the U.S. market in 2002.

Critics saw that retreat as proof that Kia lacked the right stuff to compete in America. I didn’t.

A lack of sophistication does not mean a lack of will. Nor is it indicative of some innate deficit in intellect, ability, or skill. The first Sportage was unsophisticated. But it had spirit, chutzpah. I knew we hadn’t seen the last of it, or of Kia. The 2005 Sportage, “all new” in the truest sense of that term, justifies my faith.

The new Sportage is wider and longer than its predecessor. Interior space is more generous for driver and passengers. The centerline distance between the front and rear wheels – the wheelbase – is 103.5 inches, 10.6 inches longer than that of the 2002 model. Rigid unibody construction, in which the vehicle’s metal skeleton serves as the basic structure supporting the chassis and most other components, has replaced the less rigid bolting of the vehicle’s body onto a ladder frame.

All of those changes, in conjunction with much-improved front and rear suspensions, have yielded a Sportage that rides like a large sedan but retains much of the toughness of the first model.

That speaks to the strength of the new vehicle’s character. But virtue isn’t necessarily an asset in an image driven world where charm and the Cuddle Factor rule. Cuddle Factor? Think of it as puppy love applied to a motor vehicle, usually a small vehicle, which makes it cuddly because, as is the case with many babies, it promises to give unconditional love in return for the same.

The new Sportage has a high Cuddle Factor, which is something the first model lacked. This one you want to hug.

And the new one is crafted as well as anything from Toyota or Honda. Fit and finish are excellent. The instrument panel is attractively, tastefully done. The center console attached thereto – ergonomically pleasing and highlighted by a brushed aluminum face – looks as good and certainly is as functional as some I’ve seen in such cars as the Audi A4.

Kia also has done a good job of copying Honda’s product packaging by offering lots of standard safety equipment, such as side air bags and front and rear curtain bags. Four-wheel, antilock disc brakes are also standard, along with traction and electronic stability control systems.

In short, the new Sportage, offered at a favorable price accompanied by one of the best new-vehicle warranties available – five years/60,000 miles basic coverage, 10 years/100,000 miles on the engine and transmission – is competitive with anything in the compact-SUV category.

That potential, now realized, is what I saw in the first Sportage. Here’s betting that the new model is going to do what the first one didn’t. It’s going to give all of its rivals, foreign and domestic, a serious run for the money.